The Missing Peace

Day 2

We travelled for a ways until we were beset by a storm that had several wolves accompanying it. The wolves happened to be the same as those I saw back in Deep Well, the ones being tended to by Brycroft. After quickly dispatching the beasts the storm let up and we continued onward.

Later in the day we came upon a town, what we would later learn was called Torch. This is a fairly significant sized town with a large wall surrounding a tall tower with a giant flame on the top. Surrounding the walls of the city was the Caravan spread out and apparently celebrating. As we began to make our plan we were interrupted by several Goblins. The Goblins asked us to be on our way if we weren’t part of the Caravan. Apparently they were hired a few weeks back in the desert to serve as outriders for the Caravan. Tiring of their insistence we quickly dispatched them, leaving a lone Goblin, Grog as a survivor. The outriders had been tattoo’d with the same symbol as that which was found on the Odd Envelopes. After learning what we could from him I thought we could let him go, my companion Brokk, being a dwarf and having a natural enmity towards the foul beasts dispatched him with a blow to the head.

Waiting till nightfall we made our way into the revelry disguising ourselves as drunks who had wandered out of the encampment. Easily fooling the guards we made our way through the crowds trying to learn as much as we could.

I was very nearly captured by the guards surrounding Torch but managed to escape before they could drag me into the city walls. We also noticed several signs describing the three of us and asking for anyone with information to go to their nearest guard. We decided to gather more information from someone other than a common traveler.

Scaring the Elephant and interrogating the handler was our next move. We learned that the Caravan was returning after several centuries for a marriage between their princess and the king of these lands, Hubert. The town of Torch was the last place they saw before they reached the desert and it is the first place they are stopping now before they head off toward The Landing, which is apparently the capital of this land. The last thing we learned from the handler was that the strange symbol on the Odd Envelopes is apparently Hubert’s.

Still no memory beyond the last 3 days…

Still no explanation for why we are wanted or why we were kidnapped…

So many questions, very few answers.

We have taken refuge for the night in one of the tents of the Caravan, hoping to have an easier time of getting into the city tomorrow and finding some answers.

The genasi woke up bound and hooded in the back of a wagon in the desert. Through some twist of fate or perhaps luck, his bindings had come loose and a dagger had fallen at his feet. Thinking quickly he used to dagger to free the two men, a human and a dwarf, who were bound and hooded next to him. Against the human’s wishes the other two decided action was more prudent than waiting to see where we were going or what we were doing in the back of a wagon without any memory before that moment. The dwarf jumped up and threw the passenger off the wagon while the genasi attempted to sneak up on the driver and put a knife to his throat. Unfortunately the genasi tripped over his own feet and the driver quickly noticed what was going on. Undeterred the genasi was able to stab the driver in his back and throw him to the sand below.

This had the, perhaps expected, side-effect of making the cart go out of control. As the dwarf and the genasi attempted to grab the reins without falling to their deaths the human sighed and snapped his fingers, calling forth a magical hand to bring the reins to the genasi’s grasp. After retrieving the bodies and finding an empty envelope with a strange sigil on it the three men decide to continue along the roadway through the desert with the human driving the cart and the other two loosely tied up in the back as if they were still prisoners. Towards nightfall the human notices a small tendril of smoke off in the distance and the three decide to investigate, hopefully to find some source of food as the cart was empty of any provisions beyond some water.

During the long journey through the desert, the three did not have much to talk about since their minds were for some reason a complete blank. They could only recall vague notions of their own names: Resix, the genasi, Brokk, the dwarf, and Roth, the human. This along with a feeling that their very survival depended on each other.

After travelling for some time they noticed a tendril of smoke in the distance. Making their way to the smoke they found a small oasis town that had been visited by a large force recently. Entering the town the three found a man, or rather a drunk man, by the name of Lothar who told them of a large caravan that had passed through 3 days prior. He also offered to give them food, water, and shelter in exchange for killing a man by the name of Brycroft.

Through some investigation the three companions learn that Brycroft runs the local Kennel, but hasnt done so for long. Although Lothar wouldnt explain the feud that caused his request the three learned from Brycroft himself that Lothar blamed him for his daughter, Elisa, being taken by the caravan. Brycroft explained that she wasnt taken, rather they paid her to come along, but Lothar would not believe him.

The three decided to wait until morning to talk to some other townsfolk, eventually finding the body of a man in the cellar of his house. The house looked as if someone had left in a hurry. The party believed this to be Turner, another family in the town that they learned of from Lothar’s son. They took Turner’s head in a sack and were going to Lothar’s son to have it identified when a drunk Lothar stopped them in the street and was convinced that the head in the sack was Brycroft’s.

Loading up the cart with food and water the companions had to talk Lothar out of walking them out of town as it would lead directly past Brycroft’s house and even as drunk as he was it was very likely that he would recognize that Brycroft was still very much alive. Leaving town the three noticed that Brycroft’s house seemed rather empty and upon further investigation it appeared that he had left in a hurry. Another empty envelope with the same odd sigil was found on his desk.

The three got in their cart and began to move onward in pursuit of the caravan.